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Friday Links for Educators 01.03.14

On my other blog, one of my favorite ongoing resources has been a weekly roundup of Friday Links for Writers. In the same spirit, today begins the first post of Friday Links for Educators.

Although I run across dozens of great resources each week (how else do we get to thousands of pins on our Pinterest boards?), the Friday Links will focus on the 4-6 articles or resources I found most meaningful.

With each post, I encourage you to let me know in the comments which resources were most useful, what you’d like more of, or share your own finds or posts of the week.

Have you had the “Finland is no. 1 in education” statistic thrown in your face during a dinner party debate, while non-educators list what should be corrected with United States’ education? (I’m raising my hand to that one.) So, wouldn’t it be interesting to hear from an American educator now teaching in Finland? It was interesting to read what teacher Tim Walker says he is learning from teaching in Helsinki — not necessarily what one might expect.

In this article at Edutopia, 5th grade teacher from Newark, DE, Lisa Mims, shares her recommendations for the classroom behavior app, Class Dojo. A great 8th grade teacher at my school had shared his experiences using this app within his subject-area classes this past year, but it was great to hear Lisa’s experience in using the app with 5th graders — particularly with how using the app on her phone allows her to report remotely as she differentiates with groups in and out of the room. The headline link takes you to her post; link on the company name takes you to their site for vendor info.

The post, from Veritas, shares the common application essay question topics that were revealed for college applications for 2013-14, and may be of interest for anyone teaching writing to students 5th grade and up. My school places a heavy emphasis on writing and on character, and I agree with the post’s concept that reflecting on one’s own experiences is a writing challenge that stumps many young writers.

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What About You?

How has your teaching week gone, or what resources are you most excited about this week? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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